Refugee & Migrant Education: Pathways for Hope, Understanding, and Meaningful Integration

An international conference for academic scholars, researchers, community leaders, and practitioners from the education and migration fields to explore innovative educational practices that promote education and mutual understanding, foster participation, and facilitate meaningful integration of refugees, migrants and other displaced people. Through engaging panels and collaborative workshops, this conference will strengthen opportunities to collectively promote greater awareness and understanding of refugee and migrant narratives and the global migration phenomenon, and to assure a future for the fundamental human right to quality education for all.

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Program

WEDNESDAY, 6 NOVEMBER

11:00 Registration and Networking

14:00 Welcome and Opening Plenary

Keynote – Refugee education in perilous times: Global perspectives
Brother Michael Schopf SJ, International Director, Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS)

Panel 1 – Stories of challenge and hope: Testimonies of resettled university refugee students and of students in emergency situations

Panel 2 – Setting the educational context: Discussion of key data and trends in education within forced displacement contexts, with a focus on collaborative solutions and recommendations especially for academic institutions and education organizations and service providers

18:30 Reception

THURSDAY, 7 NOVEMBER

9:00 Morning Plenary

Plenary la – Cardinal Michael Czerny SJ, Prefect, Dicastery for Integral Human Development (invited)

Plenary 1b – Best and promising practices for education in forced displacement and emergency contexts

Global Compact on Refugees and Updates from the Global Refugee Forum (UNHCR)

UNHCR Italy: Manifesto on Inclusive University and UNICORE project (University corridors for refugees)

Coffee Break

Plenary 2 – Inclusion and hope in education: Meaningful inclusion of refugee learners in secondary school settings

Prioritization of secondary education: Keeping girls in schools in refugee settings

Impact of post-primary education for refugees: Findings from Voices of Refugee Youth

Open Discussion

13:00 Lunch

14:30 Workshops – Series 1

W.1.1 Educating university students on global migration and refugee phenomena

W.1.2 Initiatives in early childhood education in forced displacement and emergency contexts

W.1.3 Technology and education at the margins

W.1.4 Faculty research projects: Sharing, learning, and discussion

Coffee Break

16:30 Workshops – Series 2

W.2.1 Refugee-led research and scholarship

W.2.2 Scalabrinian model of employment, entrepreneurship, and social innovation (EESI)

W.2.3 Teachers in crisis contexts: Addressing teacher formation amidst the global teacher shortage

W.2.4 Building futures together: Promising practices for economic inclusion and empowerment through the Approach to Inclusive Market Systems (AIMS) model

W.2.5 Education as accompaniment and hospitality: Learning from traditions of the human community

18:00 Open Discussion

Reception

FRIDAY, 8 NOVEMBER

9:00 Plenary 1 – Collaborative advocacy for 2024 and beyond: Shaping public perceptions of migrants and refugees

Coffee Break

11:00 Plenary 2 – Global insights on refugee education: Lessons, responsibilities, and best practices in higher and further education for the Global North

13:00 Lunch

14: 00 Plenary 3 – Strategic directions for the Refugee & Migrant Education (RME) Network

Working Groups

Open Discussion

Coffee Break

16:00 Facilitated Breakout Discussions: Fostering deeper collaboration and developing strategies amongst conference participants and member organizations

17:30 Call to Action and Closing Reception